Alyssa's Cup Of Tea

🐇 Chapter 6

There were intimidating goons in black shirt and pants crowding around the last cage at the far end, the bars pulled open and grunts could still be heard. The taunting voices and name-callings echoed in the damp, ancient-smelling basement. Ramon Laceheart halted before the open cage, planked by his favorite niece and Gino. His slanted eyes held no mercy and ache at the sight of the goons hitting his eldest children without holding back. The beautiful Alyssa, tainted with marring and bruises on her porcelain skin, disheveled white hair and torn dress.

"Wanton! Whore! Slut! Every single word has your face on the dictionary as its definition!" said the goon slapping Alyssa back-to-back.

Meanwhile Alessio was receiving hard blows on his stomach and occasionally getting spat on by these bulky assholes.

It took all willpower in Gino to not lose in the darkening of his vision caused by his stirring anger. He exhaled, closing his eyes for a second.

"You two are despicable. Do you not see the good in what I do for you? Freely you can move around my manor, have your own chambers and regarded highly by many in the country." Ramon Laceheart spoke in a voice coated in stern ice. He was unmoved even when blood is already trickling down from the side of Alessio's lips. "Alyssa, you are beautiful and charming yet you chose to be reckless and mean to everyone who admire you." Then he glanced next to his son, "Alessio, your intelligence and excellent observation skills are envied. You are the company's top critique but you do not seem to appreciate your job. What happened to the children I raise by myself?" His tone went slightly downward dramatic.

The goons already left the cage, standing near their boss, joining him on looking at the beaten twins with contempt and judgment.

Alyssa laughed loudly, she didn't give a shit about the throbbing pain from the hits she got. Her temper was at its peak. "How fucking dense are you, old man?" She forced herself up to a sitting position leaning her side onto the wall. In the dimness of the cage, her left garnet eyes were almost glowing. A malicious grin spread on her lips, "You are so self-absorbed you can't see how shitty this family has become"

"You hurt our sister, bastard" Alessio's ever composed voice was a contrast to the raw intensity of his twin but there was no denying the murderous glint on his black and blue eyes. His chest heaved up and down, "An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth"

If one would want to trigger the Laceheart twins, the best way to do that was to target the chink in their armor—Gino mused internally as he observed Alessio. He knew about it the hard way just how attached the twins were to Alessa; he wondered how much they would be willing to do.

Ramon walked inside the open cage, he pulled his son by the hair, yanking painfully. "She is demented, a product of the pure lunatic part of your mother. Will you rather I put her in the asylum in the mountains, hm? I am being merciful right now keeping her within the manor and letting her go to school even if she is extremely sick."

--

There was another room within Alessa's room, confusing and complicated it was but this special space was her oasis that not even her siblings knew of. When things became too hazy or hard for her to understand, this was where she retreated. Oasis—a place to feel the safest and let all the creativity out.

That was what the black rabbit told her.

In this special room, there was no one to tell her what's proper.

She was more than proper.

Notebooks were scattered on the soft-pink doll-like room, each one had writings on it and there was a tall shelf filled with books. A couple of plushies and dolls squeezed in that shelf along with other objects Alessa deemed valuable for her, trinkets that had good memories. On the pink study table, there were more writing materials and aesthetic journal stuff, then a picture frame of Alessa with her siblings.

"My Alice looks forlorn" The statement came from a male who emerged from the dark part of the room, he was tall with subtle stitches on his face going down his neck. He had long black hair and soft bloodred eyes. "Why the sad face?"

Alessa was on the carpeted floor, garbed in a fresh change of modest green sleepwear with a spring notebook on her lap and a pencil yet nothing was added in the notebook's page. "Alyssa and Alessio are in trouble because of me" She touched the bruise on her forearm covered with the gauze. "I shouldn't have let them saw it"

The handsome male with long black hair and bloodred eyes approached closer, sitting next to the strawberry blonde girl, "Yes they are in trouble right now but--" He wrapped an arm around Alessa's shoulder, pulling her to his side and making her lean on him. "--Your siblings are strong, this is not enough to break them." Half of his face seemed concealed by a shadow hanging above, compare to Alessa, he was somewhat encased in a thin dark aura. "We are going at the right direction, my Alice"

"How is this the right direction?" Alessa sounded confuse, it was difficult to wrap her head around the thought that getting punished was the right direction.

Where were they going anyway?

An amused chuckle escaped the long black hair man's lips, as if he got a good guess of the thought that sprung up in Alessa's head. "Dear one, you need to put pain and misery in the mix to make a flower bloom successfully."

"You're not making sense" Alessa slightly pouted, curling closer to him.

He laughed and playfully pinched her cheek. "I know I am, now pray tell, what are you working on tonight?" His pointed bloodred gaze was on the open notebook on Alessa's lap.

Alessa brought the notebook closer so he could see, "I am making an outline of the story I want to submit for publishing, father torn the manuscript but I still want to give it a shot. Perhaps there is a flaw in the first revision somewhere I did not see."

He held the notebook, peering close. "You are such a hard worker, my Alice. Your stories may not have the most perfect and flawless technicalities but it's the rawness that made it so endearing, I can taste the purity of your soul in each pages and the enticing scent of your blood in it..."

Alessa shifted her head so she could look at him, "When can I introduce you to my siblings?" She appeared to be unfazed by his words earlier.

"No need, dear one, they will meet me in due time. Head to bed now, you are experiencing writer's block. It won't do you good with a tired mind." He leaned forward to place a chaste kiss on her forehead.